Fowler to Head Panel Probing Rape Scandal

Published 8:00 pm, Monday, May 26, 2003

A former congresswoman will lead a panel to study the sex abuse scandal at the Air Force Academy, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.

Former Republican Rep. Tillie Fowler will be the chairwoman of a seven-member review panel required by Congress, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in a statement.

The panel will take 90 days to study how the policies, management and culture at the Colorado Springs, Colo., academy may have contributed to the problem.

Dozens of current and former female cadets say they were raped or sexually abused at the academy, and many say they were ignored or punished when they complained.

An Air Force review found 57 reported incidents of sexual misconduct between 1990 and 2003. Forty male cadets had been punished in those cases, that report said.

Fowler, a former Florida representative who served on the House Armed Services Committee, now is a partner in the Holland & Knight law firm.

Other members of the panel are:

_ Retired Army Maj. Gen. Josiah Bunting, the former superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute. Bunting oversaw the court-ordered integration of women into the state-funded military school.

_ Amy McCarthy, a United Airlines pilot and Air Force Academy graduate.

_ Laura L. Miller, a social scientist at the Rand Corp. think tank and a former assistant professor of sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles. Miller is an expert in organizational behavior.

_ Retired Army Maj. Gen. Michael J. Nardotti, a partner at the Washington law firm of Patton, Boggs, LLP. Nardotti is the former Judge Advocate General of the Army, the service's chief prosecutor.

_ John W. Ripley, director of the Marine Corps History Center and Museum and the former president of Southern Virginia College.

_ Sally L. Satel, a psychiatrist at the Oasis Drug Treatment Center in Washington. Satel is an expert in addiction and how it relates to sexual misconduct.

The panel will release a report on its findings to Rumsfeld and the chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services committees.